Energy Consultants Help Save Homeowners on their Energy Bills
Pro Energy Consultants let us tag along while they performed an energy audit on a home. We now realize how much energy can be lost by having poor insulation in your ceiling, around your fireplace and throughout a number of places in a home. We can all save on our energy bills by fixing our insulation, filling cracks and doing little things around or own homes. A simple trip to Home Depot or Lowes and a couple of hours of maintenance work and you can start saving hundreds of dollars a year.

So sit back and enjoy GLTV’s (that’s us) ride with Pro Energy Consultants. We hope you learn a few tips to start making your home more energy efficient.

Are you a business that is “green?” Have an idea for a GLTV spot?

If you are interested in your business being featured in an upcoming GLTV spot please contact Justin @ 702-525-1605 or send him an email at justin@redhousemediainc.com.

My life plans did not include single-handedly populating the earth; yet, when after four children, I found out I was pregnant again–with TWINS– that is exactly what it felt like. Since the birth of my twin boys, I have become increasingly aware of the emergent condition of our planet.

Our planet’s degraded state is due, at least in part, to over population-and more importantly over consumption. Not only do I feel an intense moral need to “do my part,” because I have a large family, I feel an intense responsibility to educate my children about the fragile state of earth, and decrease my families “ecological footprint.”

Many people feel that the answer is to limit the number of children we are able to have. However, I am amazed (and horrified) when people suggest that the means to population control includes eliminating our rights ( I had a guy in an Environmental Science class I took suggest that a way to effectively control population was to give a baby boy a vasectomy at birth). Besides our most basic rights, these types of people fail to look at the AMOUNTS of resources each person is consuming – which is inordinately high in highly developed countries such as the United States. This is at LEAST as important as the actual size of the population.

Although recently ‘experts’ have focused on the Earth’s population as the culprit of our planet’s issues, It is important to understand that when scientists or other ‘experts’ explain the effect of each person on the environment by giving a ‘per capita energy consumption,’ it is not accurate. It is the amount of resources each person consumes and the damage done by the technologies used to supply them.

While researching information on this topic, I came across several websites and various sources that contain both astounding and disheartening facts.

The “Population Explosion” is an article that was written by Paul and Anne Ehrlich. They begin their article with a quote by Thomas Hardy. “If a path to the better there be, it begins with a full look at the worst.” The degradation of Earth is rapidly turning into ‘worse’ and clearly some solutions must be found. However, these solutions do not include taking away the rights of individuals or allowing government officials to control/monitor our most basic rights and freedoms.

Paul and Anne Ehrlich define overpopulation as “…population can’t be maintained without rapidly depleting nonrenewable resources…and without degrading the capacity of the environment to support the population.” In other words, if the area is unable to sustain the people long-term, that area is overpopulated.

Although concerns about overpopulation usually centers on rapid population growth – often in poor countries — Paul Ehrlich points out that “…the impact of humanity on Earth’s life support systems is not just determined by the number of people alive on the planet. It also depends on how those people behave. When this is considered, an entirely different picture emerges: the main population problem is in wealthy countries.”

Consumers need to be informed. It is imperative that people learn to use resources in a more responsible manner. That doesn’t mean give your child a vasectomy — or throw them into the Nile at birth, it means that maybe they should reconsider before buying a Hummer, or supporting companies who have refused to be compliant with environmentally safe standards.

As parent’s we have the opportunity to make a difference every day by making choices such as carrying our own shopping bags or choosing cloth diapers over disposables (saves money too!). We also have the opportunity to have an ongoing effect well into the future by educating our children. Think about the choices we make, and examples we set on a daily basis:

* When was the last time you ordered a magazine subscription – or printed things unnecessarily?
* Do you have your monthly bills sent electronically and request that paper bills are no longer sent?
* When was the last time you bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks and they ‘double cupped’ because it was hot?
* How many plastic bottles do you throw away from water every day?
* Do you buy in bulk – or many small packages? (packaging creates more landfill)
* Do you buy vegetables and fruits from the produce section ‘loose’ instead of in unnecessary packaging?
* Do you RECYCLE?

If everyone would make an effort, it would have an enormous impact. It may not be the complete solution – but it will certainly make a difference. Our children bring immeasurable joy not only to you the parents, but to many others as well. Above all, remember that our children are our most valuable resource.

Please visit www.twinpregnancyinfo.com for facts about pregnancy, pregnancy with multiples, as well as parenting and relationship advice.

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Kelliann Bateman

Kelliann has writing expertise in the areas of health, fitness, and nutrition. Kelliann also has intimate knowledge of high-risk pregnancy, twin and multiple birth, and maternal health. She is founder and editor of both TwinPregnancyinfo.com and FitWithTwins.com, where expectant and new mothers find the latest information on pregnancy with multiples and post-pregnancy fitness. For further information please contact Kelliann at kelliann@twinpregnancyinfo.com

There are no shoeboxes of old birthday cards collecting dust in Sandy Schimmel’s closet. There are no take-out menus cluttering her kitchen counter or pieces of junk mail taking up space on her coffee table.

The colorful paper waste that most people can’t wait to shove in a drawer or a trash can, Schimmel is turning into art worth thousands of dollars.

The Phoenix-based artist collects drawers full of business cards, postcards, brochures and all types of junk mail, which she keeps arranged by color before she pain-stakingly chops and arranges them to produce finely-detailed mosaics.

“It takes a really long time because it’s all low tech,” Schimmel said. “Everything is done by hand. People always seem amazed when I say that but there’s really no other way to do something like this.”

Schimmel begins with a canvas — often an old piece of art collected at a garage sale as canvases can be reused but never recycled. She then paints the image that’s captured her attention using non-toxic, water-based paints. When she is satisfied with the painting the real work begins as she pastes upwards of 1,000 pieces of colored paper over her painting with non-toxic adhesive.

The process can take anywhere from a week to two weeks to complete for pieces that range from $200 to $5,000.

“It’s like a puzzle to me,” she said. “I get obsessive about finding just the right shade of color. It’s a lot of work but I think what makes it really special is the clever use of material.”

Though Schimmel’s work varies in subject, the bulk of her pieces are portraits — many of pop-culture icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jimi Hendrix. In these portraits she attempts to explore the concept of society’s version of beauty using the upcycled materials advertisers use to bombard society with that version.
Upcycled materials, like the paper tiles used in Schimmel’s mosaics, are disposable items reused or transformed for something of greater use or value.

A self-described hippie, Schimmel said she has always been environmentally conscious whether it’s maintaining a compost pile or finding ways to reduce her carbon footprint. She said she has enjoyed bringing that part of her life into her art.

“I had already given up toxic art supplies because I had learned even completed paintings continue to leech fumes into the air,” she said. “I just kept moving more and more to natural materials.”
Kate Chimenti, director of Translations Gallery in Denver where Schimmel’s art is currently on exhibition, said a large part of the appeal of Schimmel’s mosaic portraits is the story behind the art. While environmentally safe materials have become the norm in modern art, she said guests of the gallery have responded to the idea of discarded paper being upcycled and reborn as a beautiful work of art.

“People usually don’t realize what goes into her art until they get up close and read the tag,” Chimenti said. “It adds a whole other level for people. Everyone has junk mail or stacks of old greeting cards they throw away. She’s using them to create this really unique color palette.”

Schimmel’s current work is the result of a long-progression both in terms of medium and materials. After working for years in paint, the New York native fell in love with mosaics while studying in Turkey and Italy. After stints designing handbags, painting murals and designing and painting needlepoint canvasses, she found a way to merge the painting and mosaic work in a way she found appealing and engaging.

“I had worked in glass and ceramic mosaics but I didn’t want to be just another mosaic artist,” Schimmel said. “I wanted to offer something different. I had a box of old greeting cards and some of them had great colors. I took an old self-portrait and I thought, ‘Well, if I ruin this I can just redo it.’ I made a really simple mosaic but when I was done I knew I was on to something.”

Schimmel’s art will be on display at the Springs Preserve Museum in Las Vegas beginning Oct. 16 and can be purchased on her Web site at http://www.schimmelart.com.

By Jared Harmon